4 thoughts on “The N Scaler’s Q&D”

Hello, was wondering if you knew of any sketches for a dual blade semaphore? I’m new to arduino. I do have 2 servos, a board but lost on the sketch writing part. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

I’m sorry but I don’t have anything that would be specifically for that. However, the general approach should be the same as for turnouts: setup your servos so that they will move the semaphores, then define a range of motion that gives you the movement you want — say from 60 to 120 degrees, or whatever is appropriate. You could then use your (or mine on this site) turnout code to run the semaphore. Different object, same motion and timing problems.

Hi,
I am just starting out with Arduino (I have brought a Nano Arduino).
I am experimenting with servo motors to control my points(turnouts).
I have a question, on the layout that I am building I have some cross over turnouts which would like to switch two turnouts with one switch. (not a problem with solenoid motors) I have seen on the internet that you can buy servo connection wires that split to for two servos.
How do you wire these to an Arduino to work properly?

I suppose you could attach both data wires to the same pin and thus control both simultaneously. But I’m not sure that’s such a good idea because of current draw and possible sync problems.

What I would do is keep the two servos electrically separate, using separate data pins to run them. Your button simply triggers a software sequence that causes both servos to move at the same time.

I suggest you use the Object-Oriented approach to turnout control, so see C++ Objects for Layout Control, Part 2 — Turnouts. Using the techniques described, you would create a turnout object for each servo used by the crossover. When you detect the button push, you call either the .set() or .toggle() methods for each turnout to start the movement process. If you are continuous running your .update() methods on each iteration of the loop(), your servos will move themselves into position as requested.